A Mortal.

Wu Zhen floated through space, trying to scream for help.

[TransPORT fA@*#LED]

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The words that appeared in front of him this time were mere gibberish. He couldn't understand anything that the words said.

Two crimson eyes opened in the void of space.

"Travellers in this dimension are not welcome."

A tremendous force came over Wu Zhen and all the others floating in space as it spoke, pushing them far away at an incredible speed.

As he flew through space, he could see the countless stars in the sky that he once thought were so small. He could even see other galaxies as he passed by them, but, he never hit anything.

The cosmos was large, yet beautiful.

Wu Zhen wasn't enjoying this experience. Those two eyes had appeared out of nowhere and pushed him far enough to where his galaxy looked like a speck.

He looked behind him, only to see a massive ball of red behind him. As he got closer, the feeling of gravity had finally come to visit again, but it felt stronger than it was before.

He started burning up, his skin becoming charred. It would constantly be set ablaze and regrow, it was painful.

Finally, he landed on the planet.

The landing was painful, but the sandy grounds of the planet cushioned his landing. It was better than landing onto a rock at least.

He lied there, unable to move. His body's regeneration was only so fast, after all. The damage dealt with him this time was quite severe, and it would take a while for it to recover.

It took quite a few moments for his mind to process what had happened. Being launched across many galaxies and somehow surviving was quite an experience. He'd been lucky that the gravity of all the other planets had slowed him down quite a bit and had allowed him to live. If not for that, there'd be a red patch of sand in the middle of the desert.

There were quite a few unique things about this planet. The sand was white, and the skies were purple, quite different from his own homeland.

As he stared at the sky, he noticed out of the corner of his eye that there was a huge dust cloud coming straight at him.

At first, he ignored it, but as it became bigger, it became his number one priority to get out of there as fast as he could.

As soon as he could move again, he sprinted as fast as he could running away from the storm. Luckily, he saw a nearby mountain that could serve as shelter.

He propelled himself into the side of the mountain and crashed into it as hard as he could, making a small cave. He carried the broken rocks and sealed up the entrance shut, making it a temporary safe space.

Since there was nothing else to do while sitting in a dark cave, he began to cultivate.

The spirit Qi in the cave was abundant, incredibly so. It was more than three times the density he had felt on his own home planet. He wondered, had he just run into an exceptional spot, or did he accidentally hit a jackpot with this planet with huge amounts of qi that had been left completely untapped?

Eventually, even he got bored of cultivating in a small cave and decided to make it a little bit more spacious, so he began to dig through the hard rock using his own hands. He dug and dug until eventually, he noticed something odd. There was a small crack from which light was peeking out.

He made the hole a little bigger and peeked through, to see people. There were people on this planet!

The realization that he was not alone made Wu Zhen a little anxious, but he believed he could negotiate with them if he tried. If not, he'd just fight them. He was confident in his own strength.

Where should he enter from? It would be pretty strange if he just jumped out of their ceiling, so it would probably be better to enter from another entrance.

He went back to the front of the cave and blew away the rocks blocking his path.

The storm had cleared.

Now, he just had to look for the entrance to that place.

Eventually, he found it. It was a very discreet hole in the ground covered up by the sand of the surface.

He opened it slowly and descended as carefully as he could. Eventually, he reached the bottom.

It was as he expected. Guards were blocking the entering of the city.

"ID."

"ID? What's an ID?"

The guard looked a bit surprised, before explaining to Wu Zhen what an ID was.

"Oh, then I don't have one of those.", Wu Zhen replied.

Wu Zhen was a bit surprised that he and the guard spoke the same language. This was an alien planet, after all. He wasn't expecting there to be other humans he could communicate with.

"Then you have to get one commissioned. Come with me."

Wu Zhen followed the guard into a huge building. It was quite impressive how they had managed to build an entire city underground.

The guard spoke, "Hello, we're here to get an ID commissioned."

The man at the reception desk nodded and gave Wu Zhen a form that he had to fill in.

The writing was quite hard for Wu Zhen. He had barely ever written since most of the people in the village were illiterate anyway. As part of his martial apprentice training, he had learned to write as it would be important in situations like these when he had to fill out forms.

He turned in the form with his crude handwriting.

"Registration fee is 25 Creax.", the receptionist said.

Wu Zhen looked a little bit confused and then replied, "I don't have any Creax."

The receptionist looked a bit confused. "If you don't have Creax, then you can't get an ID."

The guard looked at Wu Zhen.

"W-well, I have a few pills! Let me show them to you!"

Wu Zhen frantically took out some of his pills to show them to the guard and receptionist.

"What are these pills? They don't even look like pills. They look like dirtballs."

Wu Zhen tried explaining to them what the pills did, but they didn't look convinced.

"What's qi, anyway? Guard, take him away."

Wu Zhen was a bit shocked. They didn't know what qi was? Even though they lived on a planet where there was so much of it in abundance?

The guard took him back to the entrance before telling him, "Listen, if you don't have any money, then I can't let you in. Don't take this personally."

Wu Zhen looked a bit sad before asking, "Then how should I make money? You're gonna leave me out there on the surface with those huge storms?!"

The guard looked a bit annoyed before saying, "I don't know! Anyway, get out! Go get an ID somewhere else."

Wu Zhen looked pissed but quickly calmed himself down. He left back to the surface. He couldn't get in there legally, but there was always another way.

He went back to his small cave, and dug a bit further, and then dug down.

He saw no one. It was time to sneak in.

He jumped down into the city and tried not to run into any guards. He made his way to the other side of the city without attracting any guards.

The streets were quite crowded. People walked around talking to their friends and laughing. Even though the entire city was underground, it was quite lively.

He walked around for a bit, before accidentally bumping into someone.

Wu Zhen's eyes dilated in shock. It was the guard he had met earlier.

The guard immediately noticed him.

"Wait, it's that guy from earlier! What are you doing here!"

Wu Zhen sighed. There was no point in hiding any earlier. It'd be better to just get it over with and fight.

Fighting was the one thing he was good at, after all.

Lightning surged through his body, and he dashed at the guard at full speed.

Before he could even touch the guard, he felt something strange. It was like he was a mortal again. All the qi in his body mysteriously disappeared.

His fist hid the tough steel armor of the guard, and he broke his wrist.

"Ow. What just happened?"

At that moment, a man with a shiny gold badge on his chest walked in.

"Captain!"

The guard looked surprised.

The captain quickly put Wu Zhen in a pair of handcuffs.

"I'll be taking this criminal."

Wu Zhen was still dumbstruck. What had just happened?

His powers had been taken from him. He was now no better than he was before starting this whole painful journey. A mortal. A useless mortal.

What was he supposed to do?

Was everything up until now pointless?